That Dark and Fateful Night
by Bird in a Rented Mask
Summary: An in-depth look at the night that Nathan can't bear to relive, even seventeen years on. Character death and scenes that some people may find disturbing. Rated a very high T for bloody images and (obviously) character death. Please review it, I beg of you.


My Love Lies Bleeding

**(A/N: I'm not entirely sure where I picked up this title, but it sounds familiar.****)**

Every time he closed his eyes, there she was. His beautiful wife. Marni Wallace. The angel pallor of her skin, a striking contrast to her dark hair. The subtle flush along her cheekbones that always reminded him of a newly blossoming rose. The confident, elegant way she carried her body, even with the burden of her child. _Their_ child.  
Those beautiful pictures were what he wanted as his last memories of her. More than anything in the world.

_He edged into the room quietly, careful not to startle her. He moved towards the bed and gently stroked her face. She twitched and smiled faintly at his touch._

"_Nathan," she murmured drowsily. "I must've fallen asleep." He smiled._

"_Hello, sweetheart. How are you feeling?" She looked up at him happily, gorgeous doe eyes glittering._

"_Much better, thanks." His hand moved to stroke her abdomen, which responded with a strong kick._

"_How's the baby?" Marni gave a weary sigh._

"_Energetic. She's been moving around a lot. That's a good sign, right?" He nodded reassuringly._

"_Of course." He gently held her wrist, measuring her pulse. It had improved since last night, definitely. Her fever had gone down. Everything about her seemed strengthened, fortified. All good signs. He crossed over to the sink and filled a glass with water. He heard Marni sigh again from behind him._

"_Is it that time again?" she chuckled._

"_I'm afraid so. But, with a bit of luck, we won't be doing this for very much longer."_

"_Nathan?" She looked up at him hopefully._

"_Yes?"_

"_If…If I'm okay after this, do you think I can get up for a little while?"_

"_Possibly. Just see how you feel. I don't want you tiring yourself out, okay? Now, you just wait here a moment." He bustled into the kitchen and popped two slices of bread in the toaster. Then he headed down to the basement, to his lab. He delicately picked up one of the precious vials containing what he so dearly hoped was Marni's cure, and carried it back to her room._

_He measured out two drops of the liquid into the glass of water and gave it a gentle stir. He passed the glass to Marni with a nod. She smiled and lifted it to her lips. He faintly heard the toaster popping up in the kitchen._

"_Oh, I'll be right back." He dashed off to prepare the toast._

_For the first time since Marni had gotten sick, he found himself reaching for the jar of jam on the top shelf of the cupboard. Cherry. Marni's absolute favourite, but he couldn't remember the last time she'd been well enough to eat it. Humming happily to himself, he buttered both slices of toast, added a liberal coating of jam, cut them into dainty triangles and arranged them on a plate._

_He was halfway out of the door when he heard the screaming._

"_NATHAN!" The plate slipped from his hands and crashed to the floor, shattering into sharp fragments. He bolted from the room at impossible speed, up the stairs and burst through Marni's bedroom door._

_She was standing upright, leaning against the wall, breathing shallowly. A bright bloodstain was spreading across the front of her nightie, below the soft swell of her stomach, between her hips. A bolt of pure, primal terror gripped him, nailing him to the floor, so that for a few seconds all he could do was watch._

"_Nathan, what's hap-" She choked mid-sentence, and blood flowed out of her mouth, into her cupped palms. That was when Nathan woke up enough to realise what was happening.  
His wife was dying in front of him.  
He sprang to her side in an instant, holding her as she collapsed so suddenly. Blood was trickling from her eyes now, the tears of a demon. He bit back a sob as he carried her downstairs._

_Her skin was the colour of wax under the bright light. It was heartbreaking to see how quickly she'd slipped away. How strong she'd been, and now this. He'd managed to hook her up to a monitor that displayed both her vital signs and the baby's. They were both dropping at an alarming rate. Marni's eyes fluttered open suddenly, her long lashes spiked together with blood. Her mouth tried to form the syllables of his name, but he gently cupped his hand over her slick, bloody lips._

"_Shh, darling. Don't talk now." She shook her head, and fought to draw enough air into her lungs to speak._

"_We're…we're dying, aren't we, Nathan?"_

"_No!" he said fiercely. "Of course not. Just rest, Marni. Don't worry. It's all going to be fine." Even to him the words had a robotic, automatic quality. Her eyes closed and opened again, never leaving his face._

"_We'll have to…call Mag. Tell her that maybe Tuesday isn't such a good idea after all." Nathan found the heart to smile. He sat beside her and clasped one of her hands in his. It felt alarmingly hot to his touch. Her skin was glazed with a fine sheen of perspiration._

"_Mm…" Marni breathed, flexing her fingers under his. Tears brimmed in his eyes, but he blinked them back. He had to stay strong now._

"_Nathan?" Her voice was hardly a whisper now, so quiet it could have been a cool breeze on an island, miles away from him._

"_Yes?" he choked. "What is it, darling?"_

"_I lo-" That was as far as she got. A horrifying spasm gripped her; her hand was jerked from his. The monitor went crazy, bleeping and flashing._

"_Marni!" He held her shoulders, and did his best to hold her still. Her eyes snapped open, staring sightlessly at him. The pupils were so dilated; her irises were no longer visible. With the unnatural colour of her eyes, the blood running down her cheeks and the horrible movement of her body, she could very easily have been possessed. He wished it were that simple: recite a magic verse or two, and whatever base spirit had hold of Marni would disappear as though it had never been.  
He held her as she twisted and jerked, held her until she fell still and silent in his arms. For a moment he was numb: physically unable to move, mentally unable to process everything that had just happened.  
Then he remembered.  
The baby. Suffocating inside Marni.  
He knew what needed to be done. At first he outright rejected the idea. The very thought of even _touching _his wife with a scalpel filled him with a cold and sickening dread. But then he thought of the baby. How thrilled Marni had been when she found out about her pregnancy. The name they'd both picked out when they had discovered that the baby was to be a girl. _

"_I'm sorry, my love." Moving as though in a trance, he picked up a scalpel from his bench, gripped it tight with numb fingers. He sliced through the thin material of her nightie and pushed it out of the way. He pressed the tip of the scalpel against the peak of her stomach. Clenching his teeth, he pushed it in deep and made a long incision. He reached deep inside her to retrieve their baby._

"_It's a girl," he whispered. "Congratulations, Mrs Wallace." He clamped the umbilical cord with practiced efficiency and detached it. He placed the newborn on Marni's lifeless chest. Why wasn't she crying? The truth hit him like a punch to the stomach.  
His baby, his daughter wasn't breathing.  
In that moment he lost all reason to live.  
He scooped up the warm, slippery baby in his arms, laid her out flat and began breathing for her. Once, twice. It was enough. The tiny thing in his arms came to life with a thin, pitiful wail. He lifted her to his face and very gently kissed the top of her head._

"_Shilo," he murmured into the downy beginnings of her hair._

His last true memories of his wife were truly horrific; things that belonged nowhere on the face of this earth. Every time he closed his eyes, even now, seventeen years later, he saw her exactly as she was the last time he saw her: pale as tallow, covered with an unimaginable amount of blood. He couldn't picture her any other way, no matter how hard he tried. He was certain that, wherever she had been laid to rest, she was still bleeding. Calling his name, screaming for him. He couldn't block it out. He sighed and turned over. The readout on his digital clock read 6:55. He dragged himself out of bed and went to wake Shilo, Marni's final screams still echoing in his mind.

**(A/N 2: this is just my interpretation of Marni's death. I have never seen the film all the way through, but I have seen both Legal Assassin and the little comic strip clip of Nathan's story. If anyone spots a really obvious mistake, could they let me know, please? Otherwise, keep your flames to yourself. Reviews are, as always, appreciated. ****)**

**(A/N 3: the more I look at this, the more it kind of reminds me of that scene in Pan's Labyrinth. Anyone who's seen the movie will probably know what I'm talking about…I hope…)**


End file.
